Shiplake Lock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shiplake Lock

Waterway	River Thames
County	Oxfordshire
Maintained by	Environment Agency
Operation	Hydraulic
First built	1773
Latest built	1905
Length	133’ 4” (40.64m)
Width	18’ 3” (5.56m)
Fall	5’ 1” (1.55m)
Above Sea Level	110'
Distance to Teddington Lock	49 miles

Shiplake Lock

legend

River Thames

Sonning Lock & weir

moorings

B478 Thames Street

St Patrick's Stream

Buck Ait

Hallsmead Ait

The Lynch

Philimore's Island

Borough Lake

River Loddon

Shiplake Lock

Site of mill

River Loddon

River Thames

Shiplake Lock is a lock and weir situated on the River Thames in England near the village of Shiplake, Oxfordshire. It is just above the points where the River Loddon joins the Thames and Shiplake Railway Bridge crosses the river. The lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773 originally of fir, and replaced by oak in 1787. It was the first lock on the Thames to have hydraulic operation installed in 1961.

The weir is some distance upstream of the lock between the lock island and Berkshire bank.

[edit] Access to the lock

The lock can be reached from Lower Shiplake down Mill Road, and into Mill Lane, where it is a short walk across a field to the lock

[edit] Reach above the lock

The river skirts Shiplake on the Oxfordshire bank and eventually passes into Sonning. Phillimore Island is just above the lock, and further on there is a double bend with two large islands The Lynch, and Hallmead Ait followed by Buck Ait. Apart from a small development here, the river banks are open fields to Sonning Bridge. Sonning lock is ahead at the bridge, but there is a large backwater branching before the bridge on the Sonning Eye side.

The Thames Path stays on the Oxfordshire bank to Sonning, where it crosses the bridge to the other side below Sonning Lock.